Various kinds of conventional UV irradiation apparatuses have been developed and marketed for curing a section to be irradiated, for instance a UV-curable resin or coating material, through irradiation of UV rays onto the abovementioned section to be irradiated (for instance, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2004-351654). Such UV irradiation apparatuses are used, for instance, for the purpose of curing a UV-curable resin for bonding of an optical disk substrate, or fixing of a printing ink that is coated onto printing paper.
A plurality of straight pipe-type UV lamps that emit UV rays when supplied with power are widely used as light sources in conventional UV irradiation apparatuses. In such UV irradiation apparatuses, a plurality of straight pipe-type UV lamps is juxtaposed in such a manner that the axial directions of the UV lamps run along a predetermined direction, so that UV rays can be irradiated, over a long area, in the abovementioned predetermined direction.
Then, conventional UV irradiation apparatuses control, using a light amount correction table, in such a manner that the light amount of the UV lamps is kept substantially constant, regardless of the lighting time of the UV lamps.
Since UV lamps are used as light sources in conventional UV irradiation apparatuses, a problem arose, however, in that the power consumption required for emission of the UV rays is substantial.
Conventional UV irradiation apparatuses, moreover, control in such a manner that the light amount of the UV lamps is kept substantially constant, using light-amount correction data that is appropriate for a predetermined set value. Therefore, the above light-amount correction data cannot be used upon modification of a set value to a value dissimilar from the predetermined set value, in a case where UV rays are to be irradiated in a light amount that is different from that of the predetermined set value. This was problematic in that, as a result, the light amount of the UV lamps failed to be kept substantially constant.